Hi Guys, need to pick your brains!. I have acquired an FMS P51 ferocious frankie 1700 and have been trying to find out the best Flap/elevator mix online but there is no info unfortunately, she is an old bird too. Various sites give you the flap throw but no elevator mix which i would think it needs, any help gratefully received. Cheers. Tx is NX10.
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In 24 hrs, I see nobody has stepped forward to reply. Perhaps it's because it's the weekend and everyone is out flying or perhaps this is a question that opens up a big can of worms and noone wants to do it.
I'll stick my neck out and say this. Elevator compensation for flap deployment is a personal thing and is different for each plane and each pilot. Only a few planes actually need it even if the pilot deploys the flaps in the proper manner. Most planes, if flaps are deployed in the proper manner, need NO elevator compensation. Nevertheless, this is something that each pilot must determine for themselves and it's not a dangerous or hazardous procedure if you are doing it right and you can manually compensate until you figure how the plane reacts.
By "deploying flaps properly", I mean you use them the way a real plane would use them. Real planes don't slam the flaps down at speed. They are deployed after the plane has slowed down in preparation for landing and the deployment is slow. You never see real plane flaps go into position suddenly like so many RC pilots do. These RC pilots decide it's time to land and even before they've begun the landing deceleration, they throw the switch and deploy flaps (1/2 then full) with no delay. Then they see the model either jump up like a spring loaded mouse trap or the plane suddenly takes a nose dive with little time to manually compensate.
The "proper" way to use flaps when coming in for a landing is to slow the plane down first, THEN deploy 1/2 flaps (with a delay dialed in - 2 to 3 seconds or more if the servos will tolerate it), then allow the plane to slow down some more before going to full flaps. Doing this, your plane may not need any ELE comp. If it does, the reaction is so gradually that you can easily do a manual compensation until you get it down to dial in bit of compenstion if so desired. If that's what you like, then start off with small adjustments, say in the 3% (1/2 flaps) and 6% (full) range and go from there.
Of all my planes with flaps, only a few do I use ELE comp. Eflite is one of the brands that will actually give ELE comp for some of their models and most of those numbers are WRONG, at least for me. For example, my old 1500mm Eflite Mustang didn't need it and I took it all out. My old FMS 1450mm Mustang didn't need it, but my current 1700mm FMS Corsair has minimal ELE comp (doesn't really "need" it but I'm lazy with that plane). For some reason, with that Corsair, I'm always in a hurry to get the flaps down and land it. But I've noticed that if I slow down as I should be doing before deploying flaps, that ELE compensation is too much and the plane starts to dive as it slows down more. Anyway, it's whatever you feel you need or like for your plane and style of flying. Someone else's numbers may not work for you. -
Yes, I am aware of 90% of your comment, I just found it strange that there where no guide lines for settings on the net, as there are flap/ele mixes for many models in the manuals, but thanks for heads up.Originally posted by xviper View Post
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I have flown many models with flaps and always slow down deployment for the reasons you stated and same thing applies to gear deployment, in fact anything that is going to cause sudden drag of any kind.Originally posted by Paul. K View PostComment
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I predominantly fly various scale model Warbirds so scale flying is a must opposed to making model fly like a leaf and look totally unrealistic, or flying a prop driven scale model at Mach 1 or full throttle all day long, as we see on Youtube all to often. Just looks ugly in my opinion.Originally posted by Paul. K View PostComment
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TBH This hobby is a vast learning curve and i've been at it most of my life and i'm 70 years of age and still learning!.Originally posted by Paul. K View PostComment
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Me too.Originally posted by xviper View PostI'm older than you and still learning.
Built my first real (free flight, balsa and tissue) model in 1954. First (single channel) R/C in 1964.
Just taught myself CAD, 3D printing and Arduino programming. Certified as a scuba diver at 71.Comment
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Here's the link to the manual if you don't already have it.
https://www.horizonhobby.com/on/dema...PRT_Manual.pdf
I took a look through it and it doesn't have any info on the flap/elevator mix that I could find.
There was a method of using the transmitter to trim straight to the mix that was mentioned here a while back, I remember it because OV10 was surprised he hadn't thought of it himself. I should have made a note of it, but didn't, my bad. Maybe he'll se this and enlighten us.
Typically, what I do on a maiden is get the airplane up to three mistakes of altitude and get it trimmed out. Then drop half flaps which usually doesn't affect anything. When I drop full, there will be a tendency to either climb or descend. I just use the elevator trim to level it out again then land. With the flaps down, the elevator will be in the proper throw . I'll use something like a tongue depressor (popsicle) stick to run a line over to the tail and put a mark. zero the elevator trim again and go into the flap elevator mix in the flap folder, then add elevator trim so that it lines up with the mark on the tail when flaps are deployed and voila, I'm good!
BTW, another old guy here, 69 is fast approaching!
Grossman56Team Gross!Comment
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